Ware residents are now able to book appointments ‘around the clock’ at local surgery

Church Street Surgery in Ware has introduced a new phone system which enables patients to call the practice at any time to book or cancel appointments. The system, known as Patient Partner, went live at the surgery in June. It has been specially designed to ease the problems that patients can face when trying to contact their GP, offering increased choice in how and when appointments are made.

The surgery has 8,600 patients on its register. It has already introduced an online system for booking appointments and ordering repeat prescriptions at www.churchstware.org. The new phone service is the latest initiative designed to improve access for patients and enhance the overall patient experience. “Patient Partner will help ease call congestion by giving patients more choice in when they can call,” explains Val Terry, Business Manager at Church Street. “This frees up phone lines at traditionally busier times of day for important queries and emergencies.”

The automated system works by detecting spaces in the doctors’ diaries, allowing the patient to choose the appointment time which best suits them by pressing a button on their touch tone phone. The system also integrates fully with the online booking and repeat prescription service.

“We realise that some patients may prefer to book appointments in the traditional way and they may continue to do so if they wish,” comments Val. “However, by providing this round the clock service, we can offer greater flexibility for all our patients, including those who work unsociable hours. We also believe that it will free up valuable time for our receptionists to attend to patient care.”

A survey carried out by the DPP (Developing Patient Partnerships) and the Institute of Healthcare revealed that almost a quarter of a million patients across the country fail to attend appointments each week. “Patient Partner was developed to help with this issue,” explains Stefan Olsberg, Managing Director of Voice Connect. “By making it easier to contact the surgery, we hope that the new system will help to diminish the number of wasted appointments which has to be good news for patients.”

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